|
In case someone doesn't check the other sites I posted to...
First of all, thank you Tyler. That was a good game plan and I'm glad we didn't ditch it early on. I know I was thinking about it, and I'm sure you were too.
The plan was to skip the bait boat and head straight to the pier, and then continue north from there in hopes of finding a halibut, but still keeping a fly line out in case of tail. Bait was definitely around at the pier, but as most people there saw, it was not biting very regularly. Tyler managed to find the hungry ones and had two or three pulls with a full sabiki. I had a few as well, so we headed north while it was still a bit dark.
There were already a few ahead of us, but as we kept going they all seemed to bail in favor of the pier or hotel area. At the time that didn't seem like a bad idea because it was DEAD up there. Nothing was going on, no bait, no birds, no marks at all on Tyler's finder. The wind was starting to look like it was going to be bad like it was on friday.
We had gone all the way north of the north TP reef and were on our way back when we saw a couple of terns circling and diving in one spot. This is usually something I would pass up, but it was the first sign of life we saw, so we went for it. It was amazing how much bait these TWO birds were diving on. Tyler dropped down a sabiki to see what they were and he came up with another full load of green backs. He yells out to me "Green backs. I wouldn't be surprised if there were yellowtail under them." Minutes later my clicker screams zzzzzZZZZZZZZZZ! I picked it up, turned off the clicker and waited.. no counting.. maybe a little praying to the fish gods... then I put it in gear.... BENDO! That thing turned me around so fast, I'm hootin’ and hollerin’ as I'm skipping across the surface.
Meanwhile, Tyler thinks that I'm making bait and doesn't really pay attention until I get the thing to color and yell out that it's a nice yellowtail. To which he responds "You're on?!" It is hard to tell that I'm pulling on anything with the rod I was using, it is the stiffest rod for its weight that I've ever encountered.
Anyway, it took a minute or so to get it up from color and I took the first gaff shot I got and almost tipped as it tried to run under me from right to left. I got this guy in my lap and tied down and noticed that the hook just fell out. I got a few on the water estimates, all were in the low to mid twenties, which seemed about right for the length. I decided to bleed it in hopes that on one would beat me by a few ounces.
During the course of the morning there were a few more bites. Brad landed one, Tyler's popped off at color, and my second one popped off a few minutes into the fight. I didn't hear of any other hook ups for that area. Thank you to the guy, Doug I think, that let me use your wheels. Send me a message and I’ll make sure that I get them back to you.
At the weigh in, I was shocked to see that my fish weighed 29 pounds! The length said otherwise, but this guy was fat! Thank you for all the congrats and congrats to the other winners. My biggest tail couldn’t have come at a better time.
-Patrick
|